Radio-tracking of elephants in Laikipia District, Kenya

Abstract

One of Kenya's largest elephant populations lives for much of the year on private land in Laikipia District where they migrate for security reasons. The ranches are now being sold for small-scale farming settlement schemes thus the elephants are increasingly coming into conflict with people. The Laikipia Elephant Project was established to find ways to reduce this conflict. An essential step towards their conservation was to gain information on their movements. Both satellite and conventional VHF collars have been used. Thus far satellite tracking, generally used in higher latitudes, has not proved satisfactory. The paper describes technical aspects of the conventional VHF tracking programme and presents some initial results.